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Styrbjörn the Strong


Styrbjörn the Strong (Old Norse Styrbjörn Sterki) (died c. 985) was, according to late Norse sagas, the son of the Swedish king Olof, and the nephew of Olof's co-ruler and successor Eric the Victorious, who defeated and killed Styrbjörn at the Battle of Fyrisvellir. As with many figures in the sagas, doubts have been cast on his existence, but he is mentioned in a roughly contemporary skaldic poem about the battle. According to legend, his original name was Björn and Styr-, added when he had grown up, was an epithet meaning that he was restless, controversially forceful and violent.

It is believed that there once was a full saga about Styrbjörn, but most of what is extant is found in the short Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa. Parts of his story are also retold in Eyrbyggja saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (book 10), Knýtlinga saga and Hervarar saga. He is also mentioned in the Heimskringla (several times), and in Yngvars saga víðförla, where Ingvar the Far-Travelled is compared to his kinsman Styrbjörn. Oddr Snorrason also mentions him in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar (c. 1190), writing that Styrbjörn was defeated with magic. In modern days, he is also the hero of a novel called Styrbiorn the Strong by the English author Eric Rücker Eddison (1926), and he figures in The Long Ships, by Frans G Bengtsson.


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